Thursday, January 10, 2008

Blue On Blue

Blue on blue is a military term for friendly fire, friendly blue forces firing on fellow blue forces instead of the hostile red forces. In the Democratic "blue" states, it seems the bluest candidate is drawing fire from those who once supported The Big Her. Andrew Sullivan prints an email from a good solid liberal reader telling of the surprising reaction to Hillary's victory in the New Hampshire primary:

Watched the NH returns with some friends last night, and something quite unexpected happened when the AP called it for Clinton -- inexplicable ANGER. I was surrounded by people in their early 30's, registered Democrats, receptive to the Clintons in the 90's, and I swear I thought someone was going to throw their wine glass at the tube during her 'victory' speech. We made a pact last that we all followed through on this morning -- logging on to BarackObama.com and donating $100 each to his campaign (this is the first time ANY of us has donated money to a campaign). Oh, and did I mention we're all New Yorkers?

Are lefties going for Obama as a vote against Hillary? Maybe. The liberals, aside from the true believers, have had enough of the Clintons. They don't like them. They really don't like them.

Camille Paglia explores why with a cutting analysis of Hillary's character, which she sees as formed by her "harsh, domineering father":

"Hillary's feckless, loutish brothers (who are kept at arm's length by her operation) took the brunt of Hugh Rodham's abuse in their genteel but claustrophobic home. Hillary is the barracuda who fought for dominance at their expense. Flashes of that ruthless old family drama have come out repeatedly in this campaign, as when Hillary could barely conceal her sneers at her fellow debaters onstage -- the wimpy, cringing brothers at the dinner table.

"Hillary's willingness to tolerate Bill's compulsive philandering is a function of her general contempt for men. She distrusts them and feels morally superior to them. Following the pattern of her long-suffering mother, she thinks it is her mission to endure every insult and personal degradation for a higher cause -- which, unlike her self-sacrificing mother, she identifies with her near-messianic personal ambition.

"It's no coincidence that Hillary's staff has always consisted mostly of adoring women, with nerdy or geeky guys forming an adjunct brain trust. Hillary's rumored hostility to uniformed military men and some Secret Service agents early in the first Clinton presidency probably belongs to this pattern. ...

"Contemptuous condescension seems to be Hillary's default mode with any male who criticizes her or stands in her way. It's a Nixonian reflex steeped in toxic gender bias. How will that play in the Muslim world? ...

"She is a brittle, relentless manipulator with few stable core values who shuffles through useful personalities like a card shark ("Cue the tears!"). Forget all her little gold crosses: Hillary's real god is political expediency. Do Americans truly want this hard-bitten Machiavellian back in the White House? Day one will just be more of the same."

Yet, Hillary continues her relentless march to the nomination, which she is likely to win. That presents we conservatives with the interesting prospect that the Democrats will nominate somebody to run for president whom they hate more than we do.